Hi all!
Maybe this will be a crazy and non-sense topic about a mad thing I thought, but until someone will answer me, I won't know if this is worth or not

Ok, I found that a minimal config starting from Pappy McFae seeds gave me a kernel size about >~4MB, where most of the other distro's kernel are around this size. So... Where's the optimization?
Someone will tell me "there are far fewer modules!!!", ok! Btw, I wanted to drastically reduce the size of it and I decided to this way (with no results... )
After backing-up my working .config, I've opened it with a GUI text editor and all =y and =m have been replaced with =n (I know that in the kernel there are hidden options you "cannot" change).
Then - with xconfig - I added only the needed drivers for my PC, setting all of them as modules (except for ahci and ext4 that are statics).

Now the kernel size is 1,1M, but... Is not working!
After selecting Gentoo from Ubuntu's GRUB menu, in the screen remains only the purple background of Ubuntu's GRUB menu, nothing else. The HDD led is not showing activity ad if I press the Power button, PC turns off immediately.

Expected results. You include no video drivers and you have no video output. You include no HDD drivers and have no disk activity. You include no filesystems and...well, you get the idea.

The Kernel Seeds configuration is not, as far as I know, a minimal configuration; it's more of an optimal base configuration, minus your hardware drivers: you had to add to it, not subtract, to get a usable kernel. If you're trying to discover a more minimal configuration, you'll be much less frustrated if you start from something working—like a good Kernel Seeds-based kernel—and subtract rather than the other way around. With no (or very little) domain knowledge, you're in for a long road, though.

- John_________________I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters.

Expected results. You include no video drivers and you have no video output. You include no HDD drivers and have no disk activity. You include no filesystems and...well, you get the idea.

Matte88 wrote:

After backing-up my working .config, I've opened it with a GUI text editor and all =y and =m have been replaced with =n (I know that in the kernel there are hidden options you "cannot" change).
Then - with xconfig - I added only the needed drivers for my PC, setting all of them as modules, except for ahci and ext4 that are statics.

I was just wondering how to get some debug infos to find what's missing into config to get at least some readable output! Maybe should I set statics also the video/display drivers?!?_________________-Complichiamo le cose per semplificarci la vita-